3-peat = Can you stand it?

Since I am not in Portland this weekend I shall treat this much like my sister said and relax, read and just take each day as it happens. Part of that is trying to get into the blog a bit more. It is quite enjoyable really. I have been spending time reading some other blogs and trying to get a perspective. It is amazing how there are blogs on food, news, sports, poetry, sex, plants, travel, just about anything you want to find out there. So I am going to keep working on mine and trying to find my thing. I love talking about food and do often. Like why is it that I cannot stand Frito Corn Chips except if I eat them with guacamole? Do not have the answer. And one must ask, am I the only person on the west coast who likes a cottage cheese omelet? But if you do like food and wnat a good deal, there is a promotion going on right now called Dine Arouond Seattle and it runs through the end of March, go take advantage of it before it is done!

Part of what I try and do is to share what I am doing but to also bring in other items of interest that happen across my life. Now one thing I gave a lot of attention to yesterday during the beautiful day we had was the courtyard of my building. It is a very structured style that has a very Asian style to it. Now before anyone goes and gets crazy on me, here is why I have picked Asian over Oriental, from a search on the web:

"Oriental" refers to THINGS from the Orient - such as food, rugs, souvenirs, etc...material THINGS. Therefore, when you call a human being "oriental" you are referring to them as an object with no soul or substance. This is why "Oriental" is offensive and LEGALLY a racist term (at least here in the USA).

Asian can be used for people or things, it is not an offensive word at all. Asian refers to anyone or anything that comes from or is related to any country in Asia - from China to India to Vietnam, including the Philippines and Japan, and in some cases that large rural part of Russia.I am unsure why "Oriental" is widely used in the UK, UK English is actually considered a different dialect of English from American English and Australian English, so words have different meanings there.

In the USA it's probably safer to not play with the word "Oriental" unless you are talking about food or rugs...but keep in mind you can call it "Asian" as well with no debate. If the term "oriental" is used in the wrong way at a workplace it could get the person who said it in trouble for discrimination nowadays so be careful.

And since the garden is not food or a rug, I am going to be safe. It really is lovely and especially after dark, the lighting is just lovely and makes for a great space. After pondering the idea for a while I am going to have some fun and this later spring and summer and very likely into autumn I am going to invite friends over for "Cocktails in the Courtyard" and likely to be on Fridays and have drinks and nibbles and just enjoy the space. I am really amazed at how little it gets used overall. The views are stunning. The water feature is a delight and heck even when it was a mess a few weeks ago with soap added, it was still fun. During the winter it is stunning and in early 2009 when we had a heavy snowstorm I remember that someone or several people made snow people in different positions on the benches and around the courtyard. It was quite fun.

So besides taking in the beauty of the courtyard I shopped online and had an order delivered to the house by Amazon Fresh. Love them! Ordered flowers and because a couple of the lilies had begun to bloom I got them for half off. How wonderful. There were enough lilies for me to make two different arrangements. I do love them and so the pink and red ones are over near the kitchen and the white ones are over near my bed. The apt. smells wonderful. I also too time yesterday to keep tabs on March Madness. Funny how all season long I do not care a stitch about basketball, but along comes the tournament and I begin cheering for the underdogs! I work with a lot of alumni from WSU so you know they are not happy campers about UW going on to the Sweet 16. I know at least one very happy camper in Kentucky this morning! But hey, you never know when the next big surprise will happen.

Mentioned how I have been getting back into reading again and I have a stack of books on the dining room table and have been attacking them one at a time. Well, now reading the "Best of Food Writing 2009" and it is something how people are just getting a little too food crazy. Do not get me wrong, I love food, and at times too much so, but come on people...if a chicken was killed further than 50 miles from the food stall it is consider uneatable? It is a book I got at Christmas from Lars & Anita Myfors. They are a couple from Sweden who live on Mercer Island.

This past week I got to stop by for tea with Anita & Lars. They are 2 of the most charming people you will ever meet. I have known them know for more than 6 but likely less than 8 years. We have become fast friends and I had the honor of being included in a stunning birthday party Anita hosted for her 70th birthday. Talk about how knowing how to do it right! Amazing. Well, they are always up to something and while they enjoy much time with their grand daughter Anita is known for her cooking classes where Lars oversees much of the clean-up duties and he also loves to work with forged steel. This is a bench that he created for me and it is just lovely. I cannot begin to tell you. It now sits at the foot of my bed. You may notice that under each ball of the bench is a square. That is not a pad, it is a square of stainless steel to prevent the forged steel from rusting, but it also serves another purpose that I do not think Lars was aware of, it keeps the carpet from getting too separated from the ball of the foot pressing down. Go figure. Oh and does it weigh a good amount. But what a thing of beauty!

And so now on with Sunday and enjoy the day. Cheers!